German-French funding programme: two TV series projects selected
- The funding recommendations: „The House“ by Lupa Film and Port au Prince/Atlantique Film and „Die purpurnen Flüsse“ („The Crimson Rivers“) von maze Pictures/Europa Corp Television
- The partners: FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg cooperate with the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC)
- The goal: development of TV fiction series as German-French co-productions
- Announcement at the opening of the second edition of the Drama Series Days during the EFM
A special premiere at the Berlinale: the committee of the new German-French funding programme for the joint development of TV fiction series has recommended the first projects for funding. They are „The House“, and „The Crimson Rivers“. There were a total of eight submissions for the first call for German-French co-production projects.
Oliver Zeller (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg), Dieter Krauß (MFG Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg), Christina Bentlage (Film und Medienstiftung NRW), Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf (CNC), Stéphanie Carrère (Kwai productions, USPA), Alice Delalande (CNC), Gabriele Pfenningsdorf (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern), Frédéric Lavigne (Forum des Images), Magalie Armand (CNC)
The following funding recommendations were announced at the beginning of second edition of the „Drama Series Days“ which started today at the European Film Market (EFM) as part of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival:
„The House“, a production by Lupa Film and Port au Prince (both Berlin), in co-production with Atlantique Film (Boulogne-Billancourt): six-part mini-series on refugee issues not from the perspective of current affairs, but as a story of the universal, emotional and moral conflicts with the traditional methods of drama within families against the background of the migration flows in Europe.
„Die purpurnen Flüsse“ („The Crimson Rivers“), a production by maze Pictures (Munich) in co-production with Europa Corp Television (Saint-Denis Cedex): a gripping and breathtaking TV series about criminal cases drawing us into the scary and thrilling world of crazy cops and sadistically creepy murderers.
The partners on the German side of this bilateral funding programme, which was signed during the 68th Cannes Film Festival last year, are: FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg. The Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) supports this fund on the French side. The fund has a total budget of 200,000 Euros at its disposal, with the maximum level of funding for a single project being set at 50,000 Euros. The goal of the fund is the development of TV fiction series which will be made as German-French co-productions.
The first call of projects for the new funding programme was held in summer 2015, with submissions accepted until November. The committee, consisting of Gabriele Pfenningsdorf (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern), Christina Bentlage (Film- und Medienstiftung NRW), Oliver Zeller (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg), Dieter Krauß (MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg), Alice Delalande (CNC), Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf (CNC), Stéphanie Carrère (Kwai productions, USPA) and Frédéric Lavigne (Forum des Images), made the funding recommendations from eight submissions. These recommendations now just have to receive final confirmation by the participating funding institutions.
The committee also decided at yesterday’s sitting that the deadline for the next round of submissions will be 15 September, 2016.